Posts tagged meeting

The BUCG Annual General Meeting will be held on Sunday 7th May from 6pm at The Kings Arms. This is your chance to have a say in what goes on in the society, and potentially become a part of running it.

Being a part of the committee is a great way to get more involved and have loads of fun, as well as boost your CV, especially if you’re thinking of going into a career in environmental work. Even if you do not want to stand for a position, come along to vote and chat.

If you would like to run for a comittee position you can email Ollie or stand for it on the day. I you would like to make any admendments to the consitution please send them to Ollie by Wednesday 3rd May.

Thank you to everyone who attended the AGM. The newly elected committee is as follows:

President: Ollie Harrison

Vice-President/Treasurer: Bea Cornu Hewitt

Secretary: Jessica Bampton

Social Secretaries: Emily Stevens & Jessica Bampton

Tools & Safety Officers: Alex Rought & Owen Iredale

Webmaster: Christopher Lock

Providence Plantation Officer: Anni Mann

Our Annual General Meeting will be held on Tuesday 3rd May from 7pm at the King’s Arms on Whiteladies Road. The AGM is your chance to have a say in what goes on in the society and perhaps even help to run it. It is also a a good opportunity to find out more about what has been happening this year and to look ahead to next year. Of course it is also a fun social event.

Being part of the BUCG committee is an excellent way to get more involved with the group and also makes a good addition to your CV. Have a read of the committee position descriptions below – if you would like to run for one please email our president, Emily. Though if you decide you want to at the last moment you can stand for election on the day. At the AGM you will be asked to give a short speech to let members know why they should vote for you.

Even if you do not want to stand for a committee position please come along anyway to vote, chat and have a few drinks.

Lastly take a look at our constitution and if you would like to suggest a change or addition please email Emily to submit a motion.

Thanks to everyone for making this a lovely year of conservation!

President: organise trips and transport (including sign ups, and emailing people in charge of reserves), chair meetings, send emails to keep members informed.

“Being the President of a society sounds a bit daunting at first, but we don’t take things too seriously in BUCG and it’s mostly just lots of fun. I have learnt a lot about group management and leadership in my time as president. It has also been a lovely way to meet new people, as well as get outside and explore the countryside every couple of weeks. Sometimes trying to book a minibus can make you question your life choices, but it makes it worth it once you’re at the beach with a lovely bunch of people!” – Emily Ramsden

Vice president: assist and support the president, organise society merchandise.

“As Vice-President you are a jack-of-all-trades and most certainly master-of-none. Alongside being the sounding board for the President regarding any and all trip decisions, you’ll end up doing a bit of everything in the society. At various stages you’ll lend a hand to social secretaries with planning socials, tools officers with…well with tools, and just generally will be available to sort out the half dozen things that go wrong prior to a trip. On trips people will assume you know what’s going on, get good at pretending that you do, it inspires confidence! Your only real responsibility for the year is to sort out hoodies and t-shirts for members. You also have to make fun of the President, and encourage people to eat biscuits. I’m fairly that’s in the constitution.” – Alex Rought

Treasurer: in charge of book-keeping, claiming back money from the union, collecting trip money (cannot be in their final year).

“As Treasurer the job is pretty easy. I collect money on minibus trips and pay it in at the Union. As well as filling out, signing and taking to the Union any claims form that members have for things that they have bought for the society. Then at the end of the year I sort out the accounts and make sure everything balances!” – Katherine Pugsley

“Being tools and safety officer mostly just involves occasional tool maintenance and trying to make the tools talk entertaining. It’s great to put on your CV because it shows you’re responsible enough to be in charge of lots of people with sharp objects and make sure they don’t hurt themselves/each other”

“As the secretary you are responsible for taking minutes during committee meetings, writing them up and sending them to other committee members. There are usually only a couple of committee meetings each term so this does not require much time. Undoubtedly, the most important role of the secretary is to go on foraging missions to Sainsbury’s in order to acquire precious foodstuffs such as tea, biscuits and toffees. This task is vital as it ensures that hardworking conservationist do not starve to death whilst perilously fighting against our arch nemesis: the brambles. All money spent during quests to obtain the essential snackage items is reimbursed by the Conservation Society” – Jess Bampton

Social Secretary (two positions): organise regular socials and the AGM.

“Being social secretary is a super fun role, through which you can express your true organisational and social creativity! The Great Conservation Bake-Off? A David Attenborough movie night? A wild bar crawl on the Triangle? The choice is yours! (As an extra plus, looks great on the CV!). Having had this role for 2 years I can highly recommend it :)” – Emma Eastcott

Webmaster: keep the website updated with info and photos, maintain the current mailing list.

“The webmaster updates the group’s website and mailing list. The mailing list just requires the addition and removal of email addresses, which mostly happens in the wake of Fresher’s Fair. Managing the website involves adding information about upcoming events and other news as well as putting up photos afterwards. Don’t worry about having done lots of coding – when I took over as webmaster I did an overhaul of the website design having never done any before! Plus the latest incarnation is intuitive to edit.” – Christopher Lock

Providence Plantation officer: in charge of the university woodland in Long Ashton, planning work for the site and liaising with the university to sort out a plan of action.

“Managing Providence is a really good way to learn more about woodland management by working with people who actually do it as a job! It’s also nice to have somewhere that we can plan our own trips and activities, and it is perfect for bonfires…”

In the run up to the AGM we are holding and open committee meeting on Tuesday 12th April at 4pm at the Hawthorns. This meeting is open to everyone and will last for about an hour. It’ll be a good opportunity to see how they work (or don’t…) and ask any questions you might have, especially if you are thinking of running for a committee position at the AGM.

Please email Emily if you’ll be joining us. If you can not make it (sorry for the short notice) but are interested in joining the committee, feel free to ask Emily any questions or let her know if you would like to meet for a chat.

Update: In keeping with the fun-loving nature of BUCG the AGM was suitably informal. A few motions were passed to make adjustments to the constitution and most importantly the new committee was elected. These familiar faces include some previous committee members as well as new ones:

This enthusiastic team are sure to deliver yet another great year of conservation. Hand-overs will be sorted out shortly and you can expect the first trips of the new committee this summer.

The time is coming up for our Annual General Meeting which this year will be held in the King’s Arms at the top of Whiteladies Road on Wednesday 29th April (time to be confirmed). At the AGM we will talk about how the year has gone, discuss and vote on any motions raised as well as elect the new committee.

The committee positions available are as follows:

President – runs the society, organises trips and transport

Vice-President – assists the president with a variety of task and sorts out clothing

Treasurer – in charge of finances

Secretary – (two positions: welfare and fund-raising) takes minutes at meetings, in charge of tea, biscuits, sweets and the like (welfare) and liaise with external organisations to secure funds (fund-raising)

Providence Plantation Officer – in charge of woodland we manage, Providence Plantation. Plans work for the site and liaises with other organisations such as the Avon Wildlife Trust to work out a plan of action for the site.

Being on the committee is a fun and great experience to become more involved with the society, work together in enthusiastic team to make a difference. Plus it looks great on your CV! No prior experience is required – most of us start from scratch with some advice from our predecessor. If you want to run for a position or have any question you can email our current President, Jess. You can also just stand spontaneously on the day. You are free to run for multiple roles however you can only have one.

You can find our constitution here which contains more details about each committee position. If you would like to propose amendments to the constitution or any other motions please email Jess by Sunday 19th April.

Update: Congratulations to Phillip Punter – our new vice-president and to Katherine Pugsley – our new tools and safety officer! Commiserations to those who were not elected – we had a number of excellent candidates and some close calls in the voting. Remember that you can stand again at our AGM in the summer.

On Tuesday 28th October, 8pm we will be holding an Emergency General Meeting (EGM) at the Richmond Pub next to the Union. This is due to the departure of two of our committee members at the start of term: vice-president Jimmy Jackson and tools and safety officer Zoe Digby. We will be electing people to refill those the positions. The event will also be a social one two – we might as well make the most of the occasion! Since the Richmond allows people to bring in their own food, we are going to have an ‘indoor picnic’. So take some yummy picnic food and we’ll all have a great evening!

If you are interested in applying for either of these positions please email our president, Jess. If you are unsure you can always decide to run on the day. You must be a BUCG member to run for a position on the committee. Anybody is welcome to apply, whether you’re a first year or a PhD student. You will be expected to give a short speech as to why you think you’d be good in the role you’re applying for. Then the BUCG members will anonymously vote for the new committee members.

Even if you aren’t interested in running for a committee position come along anyway. You can vote for the new committee members (only members can vote) and have a fun time at the pub!